Martin Investment Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

Martin Investment Management LLC cut its stake in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,107 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock after selling 478 shares during the period. Accenture accounts for about 2.0% of Martin Investment Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Martin Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Accenture were worth $7,425,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Huntington National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Accenture by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 343,463 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $120,827,000 after buying an additional 10,242 shares during the last quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC increased its holdings in shares of Accenture by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC now owns 21,049 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $7,406,000 after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Potomac Fund Management Inc. ADV purchased a new position in shares of Accenture in the fourth quarter worth about $1,737,000. OV Management LLC boosted its position in Accenture by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. OV Management LLC now owns 2,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock valued at $989,000 after buying an additional 159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, May Hill Capital LLC acquired a new position in Accenture in the 4th quarter worth approximately $273,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 75.14% of the company’s stock.

Accenture Stock Performance

Shares of Accenture stock opened at $313.50 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.47 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $196.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.23 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50-day moving average of $353.32 and a 200 day moving average of $355.55. Accenture plc has a 12 month low of $278.69 and a 12 month high of $398.35.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The information technology services provider reported $2.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $16.70 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.64 billion. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.91% and a net margin of 11.41%. Accenture’s revenue was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.77 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Accenture plc will post 12.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.48 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.89%. Accenture’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.89%.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In other Accenture news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 232 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.46, for a total transaction of $91,514.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 8,915 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,516,610.90. This represents a 2.54 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 8,793 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $394.47, for a total value of $3,468,574.71. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 11,858 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,677,625.26. This represents a 42.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 21,905 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,753 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ACN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Mizuho lowered their target price on Accenture from $428.00 to $398.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Barclays lowered their price target on Accenture from $415.00 to $390.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. StockNews.com cut shares of Accenture from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of Accenture from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $370.00 to $420.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Accenture from $370.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, fifteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $378.23.

Accenture Company Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.